Cohousing-L Mailing List: Butler workshop question

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

Dear Ann, or others who go to the CT Butler workshop:

I'd be interested in a bit of followup after the workshop with CT Butler. 
We use that book as our basic guide to consensus process at RoseWind. And 
there is a bit of it which I consider fairly radical and risky---the idea 
that the group gets to decide whether a blocking objection is one of 
"preference" or "principle." And more or less dismiss the objection if it 
is judged ----by the rest of the group, who are by definition not in 
agreement with the blocker--- to be one of "preference."

There is a very subjective decision happening there. My "principle" may 
be judged by you to be "only" a preference. 

So the notion that everyone has a piece of the truth is considerably 
narrowed here. It seems too dangerous, too risky, to pronounce upon the 
legitimacy of someone's objection, and  get to dismiss it. Suspiciously 
like majority rule. 

Do others read "On Conflict and Consensus" to include that possibility? 
How does the author respond?

Lynn Nadeau
RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend WA